Buddha’s Path (His Journey Through Asia)

One of the known religions in the world is Buddhism. This religion includes two main traditions, which are Theravāda and Mahāyāna Buddhism. This is Southeast Asia’s widespread religion.

This religion has a rich culture and history. From a spiritual journey to the enlightenment of one man, the teachings have spread in Asia, and from this, Asians developed the ways of living.

The journey of Siddhartha Gautama – The Buddha

From pain and suffering, Siddhartha went through in finding the path to Enlightenment. With the rebirth towards that path, he became the ‘awakened one’ or Buddha.

In the present village of Lumbini (Nepal), Siddhartha was born in a royal family. He has a life away from the different suffering of life, such as age, death, and sickness. But then, he discovered the cruel reality of life- different from the life he has been. One day, as an adult and having his own family, Siddhartha started taking his path outside the royal enclosure. Then, he saw an older man, corpse and sick man for the first time in his life as he went outside. What he had seen caused so much bother to him. There he earned the inevitable fate of human beings- illness, age, and death- and this is a fate he knew that no one could escape.

Aside from three persons he had seen, he had also seen a monk. He then considered this a sign, so he decided to leave his life and instead, started living as a homeless holy man. He had seen so much more of the sufferings as he traveled the world and looked for a way to escape the certainty of death, age and pain through studying together with religious men. But this way didn’t give him an answer. An Indian ascetic encouraged Siddhartha to follow the ultimate self-denial and full of a disciplined life. He concluded that the highest states were not enough as he started practicing meditation. For six years, he followed the extreme asceticism life but doesn’t even reach his desired level of satisfaction; he’s still in the world where sufferings prevail.

Right after his realization, he never thought of pampering himself of luxury life by going back instead he left the extreme lifestyle of asceticism and self-denial. He then traveled the Middle Way.

Next to Mahabodhi temple (which is a pilgrimage site now) is Bodhi tree (tree of awakening) and the spot where Siddhartha found and achieved enlightenment. One day, while sitting beneath the Bodhi tree, Siddhartha was put in deep meditation and finally reflected the various experiences he had in his life. This determined to infiltrate its truth. Finally, he became the Buddha by achieving Enlightenment. On behalf of the whole world, Brahma, king of the gods, requested buddha to share his learning with other people.

The religion spread in different parts of Asia. Unlike other religions, Buddhism is focused on the timeless essence of teaching or the so-called Dharma. Buddha started teaching other people, and for the next 45 years of his life, he has taught a lot of disciples. These disciples became noble ones or Arahants. They achieve Enlightenment for themselves.